Top 50 middleweights ever - No 2, Sugar Ray Robinson

Placing Sugar Ray Robinson only second on any list seems odd. Much like the idea of Muhammad Ali not being the best heavyweight of all time, a case can be made, but what's the point?

Robinson changed boxing, a man who showed that speed and movement could be as potent weapons as strength and power. He is also the only boxer who would be a shoe-in for a top five place in two divisions.

Born Walker Smith - he got the name Ray Robinson after borrowing a friends medical card after he discovered that he was too young to box - Robinson lived on the same block in Detroit as Joe Louis as a child and it was the Brown Bomber who inspired him to become a boxer.

He turned pro at 19 with an amateur record of 85-0. Remarkably, within his first 15 months as a pro he defeated Sammy Angott, the reigning lightweight champion, and Fritzie Zivic, the former welterweight champion, twice.

Difficulty in getting a shot at the welterweight title saw him taking on middleweights, notably Jake LaMotta against whom he regularly gave away about a stone. When he finally made the move up in 1951, having been welterweight champion for four years, he beat "Bobo" Olson and then won the title from LaMotta in the fight known as the St Valentine's Day Massacre in 1951.

But his reign as middleweight champion was not without setbacks, though. He lost the title to Randy Turpin in London and had to dig deep before retaining it. He then beat Olson again and Rocky Graziano before the heat and Joey Maxim denied him the light-heavyweight title at Yankee Stadium in 1952.

He retired after that, turning to a career of singing and dancing, but money difficulties drove him back to the ring after three years, aged 34. He was not the same, losing to Ralph Jones, edging split decisions over Johnny Lombardo and Rocky Castellani. He won the title from Olson, but then exchanged decisions with Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio.

Approaching 40 he was still going, losing to Paul Pender and Fullmer. At 41, he lost to Terry Downes at Wembley, one of 47 fights he had in his 40s, before finally quitting in 1965, after his 200th fight. He finished with a record of 173-19-6-1NC.

Had Robinson spent all his career at middleweight, there is little doubt in my mind that he would have topped this list. When, eventually, the pound-for-pound list is produced, I have little doubt he will be on top.

Comments

[JOHN]

Bernard Hopkins is the outstanding middleweight of the last 15 years. Roy Jones may have had more flair but those defeats against Tarver and Johnson have tarnished his legacy. Hopkins' only defeats in recent years have been close points decisions, considering his age this is a great achievement. For all round boxing ability and toughness Hopkins has to be in the top 5. The 1980s was a golden age for middleweights with Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran but Hopkins is very close to these legends.

[Crashing Dashing Kid]

What a fighter! But also undervalued was his unbelievable chin. Beating a peak Sugar Ray was like trying to bottle lightning wearing a blindfold.

[James Fairweather]

No argument with your last comment, Ron and little with your overall summary of the true Greatest.

I read an interesting article about Robinson recently, which compared Robinson's middleweight career with Ali's at heavyweight after 1970. Lacking the blinding foot speed and ability to "surround his man" with punches that he had displayed prior to 1950, Robinson still found a way to beat most of his foes in what was, along with the 1920s, the greatest era of middleweight boxers.

If Ali's career were to be measured from 1970 only, he would still rate as an all-time top 5 heavyweight. So it is with Robinson as a middleweight. Not right at the top, but clearly top 4, a fact which adds further ballast to his irrefutable claim to the all-time pound-for-pound No 1 spot.